After seeing the Nebraska story, I picked up the phone and called the auditor’s office and talked with him. I told him about the studies that I’ve done on the topic and asked if he’s like copies (he did, and I sent them over).

After we talked, it’s not the gaming itself that was the problem, but the creation of the video showing staff members playing the games (with no other content). If the video had shown patrons playing games and it was a program, or if the video had been part of a training program where the staff were teaching people who to use games, it would have not caused the problems that this video did.

So, the argument wasn’t “libraries shouldn’t have games” but “they shouldn’t make frivolous videos for the public to see”.

2 thoughts on “Scott Nicholson on Nebraska & Gaming”

It’s not all that simple. Mr. Foley has since said in recorded interviews that we should not have spent the money on “children’s toys” in the first place, let alone played them on state time and/or made the video. Granted, the context was not presented on YouTube as well as it could have been, but if we had given that context, there’s nothing that indicates the situation would ahve been treated any differently.

1) When we get new equipment, do we not test it our first? Do we not debug it? Do we not do in-services to train our fellow employees?

This is nothing different. They’re simply making sure they know how to use the equipment so that they can better help their patrons when they have questions about it.

2) Was it wise to record it?

Yes. You can point to the video and obviously see that they are expanding their own technical capacity. The biggest point: It humanizes the library. These people are having fun and learning at the same time – what’s so wrong about that?